Container carriers are embarking on a rates war, according to one leading analyst, while other experts contacted by Splash remain circumspect to label today’s diminished container earnings landscape as an all-out battle to the bottom.
Hua Joo Tan, who heads up research outfit Linerlytica, described the rates war as being “plain as daylight”.
“Carriers have given up all the April gains. Blank sailings are being removed, sailing speeds are rising, carriers have chased up charter rates,” Tan told Splash, going on to highlight some of the “funky” deals being offered by number two carrier, Maersk, adding that it was not just the Danish giant driving the rates battle.
